Capital’s streets are blighted by litter

My wife and I recently enjoyed a relaxing week’s visit to Galway and Kilkenny in glorious weather.

We walked extensively in both Irish cities and their surrounding hinterland, enjoying the stunning scenery, visiting beautifully appointed historic buildings and seaside towns, while enjoying the warm hospitality in the pubs and restaurants, where standards of presentation of food and cleanliness were very high.

The streets were always very clean and devoid of litter at all times of day, and the many visitors evident in both urban environments were keen to maintain such standards.

We were really impressed by this collective wish to maintain high standards of urban hygiene, akin to that seen in many other European countries we have visited over many years.

After such an uplifting experience, we travelled to Cardiff, our own capital, for a close friend’s daughter’s wedding. I had previously lived in Cardiff for 32 years as student and teacher, brought up my own family there and enjoyed seeing it being transformed into a modern and vibrant city over the last 30 years.

However, during a three-day stay, which involved moving around many areas of the city, we were horrified by the untidy, dirty state of the streets, which were strewn with litter of all sorts.

We were saddened at the comparison we could make and the conclusion that our own capital city was by far the most shabby and littered on our travels, which made us question the reasons why this should be the case. No doubt there are many reasons, but it seemed obvious to us that unless residents and visitors adopt higher expectations and standards, and above all a greater collective pride in their environment, then things might not improve.

Maybe a huge campaign needs to be triggered by city authorities to raise this issue and to engage people, but without some action our beautiful capital will simply be remembered by many visitors as a “litter zone”.

D Willington

Pembroke

Plaid Cymru must tackle the real issues

Firstly, is it unfair to describe the party as a party that is over-pre-occupied with the Welsh language? Dr Gwynfor Evans’ biographer, Rhys Evans, has said that the party’s campaign to bring about S4C, a television channel that has helped to maintain the division between English-speaking and Welsh-speaking Wales, fixed the image of the party as a party for Welsh- speakers. S4C has been a millstone around the party’s neck.

The refusal of some nationalists, including party president Jill Evans, MEP, to pay their TV licences at the time of the channel’s funding crisis a few years ago led to adverse criticism; some commentators said that Plaid Cymru gave the impression of a dog that was being wagged by a Cymdeithas Yr Iaith Cymraeg tail.

When Gwynfor Evans said that people could not regard themselves as truly Welsh unless they spoke the language he might just as well have been saying that Plaid Cymru had no interest in winning the votes of English-speakers.

Also, nationalists ignore the fact that they cannot reach many hundreds of thousands of viewers who do not watch this country’s English-language television service. Until it addresses this problem it is clear that Plaid Cymru has no serious interest in maximising its vote beyond its comfort zone.

Secondly, some of the nationalists’ economic views have been bizarre. Was it so long ago that leading party members said that if Wales became independent we could have a banking system like that of Iceland and a Celtic tiger economy like that of Ireland?

I have long wondered about the fact of Welsh nationalists endorsing a form of Thatcherite prosperity.

Plaid Cymru needs to get its act together and stop being the political arm of Cymdeithas Yr Iaith Cymraeg. It must confront the issue of this nation’s divisive broadcasting service and come up with sensible policies to address the severe long-term economic problems that Wales will undoubtedly face if or when Britain leaves the EU.

If the nationalists address these issues then perhaps in 30 or 40 years’ time the party could be in a position to call for a referendum on Welsh independence.

Gwyn Meredith

Brynmawr

Brilliant ideas plus cash are vital for Arms Park

I WAS interested to read the article by Andy Howell on the proposed development of the Arms Park.

He sells us all the benefits of the scheme and I am sure Peter Thomas must be more than pleased.

But, and there is always a but, is there not? Wasps and Exeter were mentioned, as was the French scenario. Do the top English and French clubs play in the Pro12? I do not think so.

It would take an exceptional marketing director after the improvements with cash in his pocket to lure world-class players to play in that league on a regular basis. Sort that out first, then the development plan would be automatic.

David Llewelyn

Rhydlafar

Promote Welsh sport, give us cricket team

Why are two foreign cricket teams playing in Cardiff on September 4? Where is the Welsh national cricket team?

Wales had a successful cricket team in the 1920s and ’30s. Scotland, Ireland and Holland have national cricket teams, so where is ours?

Why last year did the luminaries of the Labour-run Cardiff council give Glamorgan County Cricket Club £4m to stage cricket matches between foreign teams in our capital city? They are using council taxpayers’ money to tell the world Cardiff is in England.

Cardiff council and the Welsh Government should be promoting Welsh sport. They should be fighting for Welsh cricket and Olympic teams. Welsh sportsmen and women in all sports should play for Wales!

Keith Parry

Cardiff

Look more closely at falling living standards

Thanks to Labour’s civil war the Tories are likely to have a clear run in their gerrymandering constituency boundary changes that could see the loss of 30 Labour seats.

Under the guise of cutting the cost of politics by cutting the number of MPs, while cramming the Lords, the Government can perpetuate the one-party state they currently enjoy due to the total absence of any effective opposition.

Only a new constitution, based on the truly democratic electoral reform that voters were crying out for when they voted for a hung parliament in 2010, will restore the balance of power between labour and capital that is becoming so distorted by artificial intelligence, to the extent that there is no meaningful attempt to tax capital, only income.

This failure of Tory government to tax capital is the main reason why health and welfare spending is being cut back, and both health and education are becoming increasingly privatised as outlets for surplus capital, which is consuming itself in short-term gains for shareholders rather than investing in research for the future.

These short-term gains for investors are reflected in the Government’s short-term calculations of winning the next election, and we continue to lurch from one inexperienced side to another, while voters are deliberately misled into blaming Europe for falling living standards when the real causes lie much nearer to home.

Margaret Phelps

Penarth

Labour candidates getting it all wrong

THE polls are predicting a Tory landslide in 2020, with the new boundary changes resulting in Labour losing 30 MPs.

So whoever wins the Labour leadership campaign will have a massive uphill struggle.

Why then are both candidates peddling the same radical left agenda when neither would be electable to the voters of south-east England?